Literacy into action: digital games as action and text in the English and literacy classroom

Using data gathered from a three-year research project exploring digital literacy and pedagogy with respect to video games, including classroom games-based pedagogy and curriculum and ethnographic research on students' digital game playing, this article locates and explores a key conceptual problem facing the incorporation of digital games into English and literacy classroom activities. This challenge is defined as "action" and refers to the non-visual and non-textual elements of gameplay. This challenge is explored both theoretically and through a practical discussion of various strategies developed by teachers in the project to approach this issue. The article draws on contemporary game studies in order to map out and highlight several key areas where action-based projects lead to critical reflection.

Narrative Memory in Hyperfiction and Games

The aim of this paper is to address some theoretical issues concerning the narrative practice in cyberspace. From a narratological perspective it intends to clarify the functioning of time and space in storytelling. For that purpose it traces the concept(s) of memory inherited from rhetoric; the use of memory as a narrative device in traditional accounts; the adaptations imposed by hyperfiction. Using practical examples (including two Portuguese case studies - InStory 2006, and Noon 2007) it will show how narrative memory strategies can be helpful in game literacy. The main purpose is to contribute to serious game research and (trans)literary studies.

Children's advertising literacy for advergames : perception of the game as advertising

This study examined whether children recognized advergames as a type of advertising and the efficacy of an advertising literacy program. Results indicated that without the advertising literacy education, about three-quarters of the children did not recognize advergames as a type of advertising. However, those with advertising literacy education showed a significantly enhanced understanding. Also, a series of mediation tests showed that recognition of advertising was an indirect-only mediator between the advertising literacy and skeptical attitudes toward advertising. Only those who viewed the advergame as a type of advertising demonstrated more skeptical attitudes toward it.

Researching kids and computer games : games, game play and literacy in the twenty first century

Videogames, and young people's engagement with them, are of growing interest to education. This paper reports on initial find ings from the study: Literacy in the Digital World of the Twenty First Century: Leaming from computer games, focussing on the opportunities offered by studying young people's immersion in game play for understanding more about contemporary forms of  engagement and textuality, new forms of literacy,community and identity multimodality, and the implications of such forms and changes for contemporary literacy and English education. Taking videogames as examples of global, ICT-based popular culture, where meaning is built from muhimodal elements, and where young players have to he actively teaming and involved in order to play, the project asks how English and literacy education might benefit from examining videogames, as rich exemplars of contemporary digital culture, and the ways in which young people make use of them, to improve the teaching of print and multi modal forms of literacy.

Gaming privacy : a Canadian case study of a children’s co-created privacy literacy game

This paper reports the process and outcomes of the design of a game that educates children about management of privacy online. Using a participatory action research process, children worked with the researchers to develop and play a game which simulates certain aspects of online privacy management and allows for scaffolded experiential learning in a safe environment. The game allows children to develop autonomous skills and understandings, not only for more effective learning but also because it is only through autonomy that children can develop a sense of self which is necessary for understanding what it means to be private. The paper shows that children have quite sophisticated understandings of privacy, compared with some adult perceptions, and that these understandings include awareness of the risks posed by commercial organisations seeking to gather personal data from them. The paper shows how engaging children as research and design participants can lead to more successful approaches in the development of privacy literacy.

Approaches to Developing Educational Resources Using AI Embedded in Computer Game Technology. A Case Study: Primary School Literacy

In this extended abstract, we discuss recent research at Worcester into the inclusion of AI into ‘Serious Games’. Serious Games research intends to harness the power of computer game technology to produce educational and training materials. We prefer the name ‘Immersive Environments’ (IEs) since this emphasises the human psychological dimension. Creation of compelling and convincing learning software requires a rich engagement of the learner, and a convincing learning experience. We believe that various aspects of the AI tradition can inform the production of such learning.

'Smart' technologies in early years literacy education. A game changer: mobile touchscreen devices and the education of young children

Professors Julianne Lynch and Terri Redpath discuss their article published in the Journal of Early Childhood Literacy entitled "Smart Technologies in Early Years Literacy Education".

Playing the game: critical literacy, gender justice and issues of masculinity

This paper explores issues of critical literacy, gender justice and masculinity through ‘Mr A’s’ story. Mr A is head of English at ‘Grange College’ – an all boys’ school in a large urban centre in Queensland (Australia). The paper highlights how the privileging of rationality, control and ‘the masculine’ within Mr A’s ‘teaching‐as‐usual’ discourse constrains his efforts to pursue gender justice through critical literacy. While Mr A scaffolds his students’ critical analysis of gender and power in texts, his investments in teacher/student binary relations draw rigid boundaries between himself and his students in ways that delegitimise the terrain beyond the rational and ignore a theorising of the self. Drawing on Mr A’s story within Davies’ theorising about the possibilities of critical literacy, this paper adds to key work in arguing the importance of teachers’ interrogating their classrooms as lived texts where the relations of domination and power that derail the social justice possibilities of critical literacy can be made both recognisable and revisable. Such interrogation is foregrounded here as particularly urgent within the current moment where rationalist discourses within and beyond schools are increasingly working to circumscribe and constrain teacher practice in ways that stifle transformative social agendas.

Learn to design vs design to learn: enhancing educational opportunities using game technoloy

Recognizing as children’s input in game design and development process is critical, we applied cooperative inquiry experiences working with young children as game design partners. The computer-based games specifically were designed and developed for the acquisition of survival literacy by 12-14 year old intellectually disabled children. During the design and development game process, children learnt game design techniques without their acknowledgement. Importantly, the development process will be undertaken by the students with the minimum guidance of team members. The experiences, challenges and lesson learned through game design process are discussed.

(W)reading, wrangling and the rhythm of the text: enhancing the education of young boys with game-based learning

W)reading, wrangling and the rhythm of the text: enhancing the education of young boys with game-based learning Connecting curriculum content to young people's engagement with texts outside of the classroom is increasingly recognised as a method of providing challenging learning environments (Beavis 1999). The introduction of games-based learning in areas such as literacy provides young people with a structural and conceptual framework with which many, particularly young males, may be familiar...

Digital games : literacy in action

Digital Games: Literacy in action is the result of a wide-ranging investigation into the educational possibilities involved in young people's games. From their creation in the classroom to analysing games and the world of games as text, academics and teachers are now taking seriously the serious play of young people.

The contributors use the interaction between the theoretical frameworks of games as text and games as action to explore a wide of range of issues relevant to the teaching of English and literacy. These include understanding games as media texts, the place of digital culture in young people's lives, the narrative and visual design components of games, exploring concepts of role play and identity in games, the potential for games to engage disengaged students, and issues of gender and social interaction in game playing.

For the win (FTW)! Contribuições de um serious game para o ensino-aprendizagem de argumentação

This is a qualitative and reflexive research with focus on digital literacy. Among the digital media that could support the teaching of argumentation in the Science & Technology and Information Technology undergraduate courses of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, we chose a serious game as object of research. Given the object of study in the discipline of reading and writing II – argumentation and genre from the order of argumentative writing -, common to the undergraduate courses mentioned, we invest on the development of a serious game, named ArgumentACTION, because we believe that it may, in fact, become a promising didactic instrument. Therefore we intend to understand whether and how this game can help students develop their reading and writing skills more independently, specifically towards an argumentative order genre: the opinion piece. With this research, we intend to contribute to the teaching of the Portuguese language on three bases: extending theoretical scope, in order to generate greater intelligibility on the teaching-learning process of argumenting; proposing a new methodological possibility, with the incorporation of a serious games to teaching; perfecting the game with which we are working, in order to build – and make available – a more refined digital tool to subsidize the teaching and learning of reading and writing of opinion pieces. To do so, we use the following as theoretical-methodological: Studies of Literacy (KLEIMAN, 2012b; TINOCO, 2008; OLIVEIRA, 2010; GEE, 2009; 2010; ROJO, 2012), The Applied Linguistics (KLEIMAN, 1998; BUSH-LEE, 2009), The Philosophy of Language (BAKHTIN, VOLOSHINOV, 2012) and Critical Pedagogy (DEWEY, 2010). A group of students from the upper mentioned undergraduate courses collaborated with this research by playing and analyzing the game. They were also interviewed about their experience in this matter. From the data generated, we established the categories of analysis: decollection, interest, multimodality/multisemiosis and interactivity, agent of literacy, learning principles. The conclusions we obtained show that the investment in applications, especially games, can bring real benefits to the teaching/learning of the Portuguese language; moreover they reveal that the work on argumenting has much to gain with the incorporation of serious games; however the possible advantages depend on a focused teaching practice and constant improvements and updates of this type of interactive tool, as well as the pedagogical practice from those who use and develop the games.

Creating Educational Immersive Environments Using a Computer Game Engine: Case Studies and Design Theory

This paper aims to crystallize recent research performed at the University of Worcester to investigate the feasibility of using the commercial game engine ‘Unreal Tournament 2004’ (UT2004) to produce ‘Educational Immersive Environments’ (EIEs) suitable for education and training. Our research has been supported by the UK Higher Education Academy. We discuss both practical and theoretical aspects of EIEs. The practical aspects include the production of EIEs to support high school physics education, the education of architects, and the learning of literacy by primary school children. This research is based on the development of our novel instructional medium, ‘UnrealPowerPoint’. Our fundamental guiding principles are that, first, pedagogy must inform technology, and second, that both teachers and pupils should be empowered to produce educational materials. Our work is informed by current educational theories such as constructivism, experiential learning and socio-cultural approaches as well as elements of instructional design and game principles.

A model for critical games literacy

This article outlines a model for teaching both computer games and videogames in the classroom for teachers. The model illustrates the connections between in-game actions and youth gaming culture. The article explains how the out-of-school knowledge building, creation and collaboration that occurs in gaming and gaming culture has an impact on students' understanding of their own lifeworlds. The authors demonstrate how the development of curricula around and with games and gaming cultures can incorporate and capitalise on approaches to learning and collaboration, design and identity that students have developed in their own gaming practices.